Sakura Trees Among the Mountains
by Coldpockets
Summary: InoSaku. Ino takes the good with the bad.
1. one: The Good and the Bad

Title: The Good and the Bad

Word Count: 343

Rating: K for a lack of anything offensive at all.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.

Just your basic cliche. Seriously. How many other people have written stories like this? Wanted to try my hand at it anyway. InoSaku is one of my favorite Naruto pairings. Yuri, obviously.

* * *

There are the good days. Sakura laughs, she saves people, heals wounds. She kisses Ino softly, lovingly, with more gentleness than anyone could ever expect of the kunoichi who is legendary for smashing rocks with her bare fists. Ino for her part likes these days best. She doesn't have to walk carefully those days, she can be unreserved, as bitchy and snarky as she wants and Sakura will take it in stride.

There are the bad days. Sakura yells and shouts and screams about anything and everything. Ino screams back—she can't take being yelled at—and sometimes they come to blows. Sakura won't eat, Ino won't cook and neither of them cleans anything. Ino usually stays over with Shikamaru or Chouji or even Kiba and Hinata. Sometimes she stays for days, sometimes she spends weeks shifting from one place to another. Her team says nothing anymore, not trying to reconcile her and Sakura's differences. They have learned as Ino has learned to simply wait for the next stretch of good days.

There are the worst days. Sakura doesn't say anything. Ino comes home to find her curled up in a corner, the torn curtains or sheets or pillows scattered around her, tears streaking eagerly down her face. She whimpers some explanation when she sees Ino—_the curtains wouldn't close, the sheets were scratchy_—and just keeps sobbing until Ino comforts her to sleep. Sometimes she calls Tsunade to find out just who Sakura lost, just who she couldn't save. Sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she cries herself, but most times she just tucks Sakura in and sits and thinks, sake in one hand and a kunai in the other.

There are good days, and there are bad days and Ino takes them all. She is cold and unfeeling, like any shinobi should be, and she can handle all of them. Sakura isn't strong, not like she should be, so Ino has to be strong enough for both of them. There are good days, and there are bad days, and Ino takes them all.


	2. two: Fragility

Title: Fragility

Word Count: 138

Rating:K+ for slight angst.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.

You guys can probably tell whenever I have a huge project due by my massive updates. Procrastination is a soul-eating--/wants to curse but then would likely have to up the rating/. But anyway, here is another InoSaku bit. Just because I love them.

* * *

Fragility is not a word anyone would use to describe Sakura. She has dealt with more loss than most—_Naruto_, her mouth whispers at night. _Sasuke_—but she still goes on everyday, faces each new wounded shinobi with steady hands and a strong will. Every man and woman that comes under her care is grateful to Sakura, and she bows to them all, smiling at their gratitude. Ino hates all of them. They tear up Sakura with their news and their wounds, hurt her someplace even Ino can't reach. She thinks maybe that place in Sakura's heart is only there because of the loss of Sasuke—to lose a teammate is a pain Ino doesn't know, not comparable to any of the other forms of rejection she has experienced—but that doesn't mean anything if Ino can't help.


	3. three: Care

Title: Care

Word Count: 185

Rating: K for basically nothing. Pure fluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.

Apparently I can only write angst or fluff. Maybe someday I'll actually end up writing something longer than 500 words that is in the middle. Like hell. InoSaku again. Obviously.

* * *

Sakura likes taking care of people, Ino realizes one day. She is watching Sakura play with a stray dog, giving it her lunch—her _entire_ lunch, meaning she will have nothing to eat later, and Ino will have to share—and petting it softly. Ino cocks her head curiously and just looks at Sakura, trying to understand. For a week afterward Ino is quiet—Shikamaru even goes to the trouble of poking her to see if she's still alive—until she gives up. She starts acting out even more, getting herself into trouble on purpose—flirting with the wrong guys, insulting the wrong girls, stealing the attention of men out with their girlfriends—and Sakura has to come rescue her. Sakura lectures her every time, bandaging her wounds gently, between gentle kisses on her cheek or forehead. But Ino also sees the loving gaze--tender and kind—Sakura gives her, that of a protector. Ino is strong enough to take care of herself—she _could_ have flattened that man, or this jealous girlfriend—but she is willing to surrender her strength to make Sakura happy.


	4. four: Fights

Title: Fights  
Word Count: 237  
Rating: T for mentions of sex.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.  
More angst. Enter Naruto.

* * *

Naruto always knows when Sakura and Ino are having relationship problems. It doesn't really matter what it's about—Ino looked at someone she shouldn't have, Sakura came home hours late—because even the smallest thing will set them off. And then, every night that they aren't speaking to each other, Sakura finds her way into Naruto's bed. She begs for him to fuck her, make her forget. He always gives in—he can't bear to see her cry, no matter how wrong it is. It is always more of her fucking him, and he always feels empty afterwards. In the morning, she gets out of bed first, dressing in front of him.

"I won't be back," she tells him. He knows it's true—she won't be back until they have another fight.

"I know," he says. And just like that she leaves. Sometime between then and lunch, the two kunoichi always make up, and they always go to Ichiraku's for ramen. Naruto knows it's because Ino knows he will be there, so he obliges them. And in the middle of lunch, Ino always kisses Sakura passionately and possessively, so that Naruto won't get the wrong idea that he has any claim on her. But Naruto always waits for the next fight, because he is pathetic and he still loves Sakura and wants her to be happy and that is the only part of her he can have.


End file.
